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features online versions of all the Harper's Weekly newspapers published
during the Civil War. These newspapers serve as a resource to allow the
serious student to gain new perspective and insights on the War.

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THE LATE REV. LYMAN BEECHER, D.D.

THE LATE
REVEREND LYMAN
BEECHER.

WE publish herewith a portrait of
the REV. LYMAN BEECHER, who died on 10th January in the city of Brooklyn, at the
age of eighty-seven; and we condense the following sketch of his life and
services from a longer biographical memoir:

Lyman Beecher was born at New
Haven, Connecticut, October 12, 1775; graduated at Yale College in 1797; and
studied theology under the direction of President Dwight. In December, 1798, he
was ordained pastor of a church at East Hampton, Long Island, upon a salary of
$300 per annum. In 1810 he removed to the care of the first church, at
Litchfield, Connecticut. Here he remained about sixteen years, during which time
his remarkable qualities as a preacher and as a zealous and active minister
brought him a great reputation and a remarkable influence throughout New
England. In 1826 he was installed over the newly-established Hanover Street
Church, Boston, and, during his residence there, devoted himself with both zeal
and ability to the urgent work committed to his guidance. His ministry
necessarily partook largely of a controversial character. He flung himself into
the thickest of the battle, and was sustained by the confidence and fervent
admiration of the religious body to which he belonged. The sincerity and
spirituality of his preaching was generally acknowledged, and it was attended by
decisive results, in a revival of the spirit and increase in the numbers of
evangelical Christians. In 1832 the Lane Theological Seminary was established at
Cincinnati, and Dr. Beecher was invited to take the direction. He carried the
same strength and ardor into his new connections, and electrified a considerable
part of the country by the publication, soon after his arrival, of is tract
sounding the alarm of Roman Catholic supremacy at the West. He remained in
Cincinnati about ten years, having, in addition to the care of the Seminary, the
pastoral charge of the Second Presbyterian Church. After leaving there he
resided for many years in Boston, without fixed employment, but with
undiminished intelligence and vigor, even at a very advanced age. During the
more active portion of his life few or none of his profession were better known
to the people of the United States, and it is probable that the labors of no
other have produced a more immediate and apparent effect. His fame as an orator
was widely spread.

Of Dr. Beecher's thirteen
children not a few have attained to eminence as writers and ministers. Miss
Catherine Beecher, Dr. Edward Beecher, Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe, Rev. Henry
Ward Beecher, Revs. George, Charles, Thomas, William, and James Beecher are all
known in certain spheres of public usefulness, and each in his specialty has
done service in his day and generation.

Of his son Henry, Dr. Beecher was
peculiarly fond and proud, and during the last ten years of his life has been
more or less with him. About five years since he became a permanent resident of
Brooklyn, living within a stone's-throw of his son's house and church. At the
latter place he was for some time an honored landmark of a former generation,
and an object of universal esteem and affection. Latterly, however, during the
past three years, his body, originally so erect and sinewy, had rapidly failed.

At the close of the morning
sermon on January 11, the Rev. Henry Ward Beecher paused a moment, and then, in
a voice tremulous with deep emotion, which sent a thrill throughout the vast
congregation, he proceeded to say, in substance:

Last night, at five o'clock, at
the ripe age of eighty-seven, my venerated father went to his eternal rest. His
life was singularly blameless—simple, constant, full of the noblest Christian
heroism, faithfulness, and devotion to the cause to which he early consecrated
his powers. For about a year and a half his mental condition has been
exceedingly feeble and child-like. He has been like a traveler who had packed
his trunk in anticipation of a journey,

and, expecting every moment to
start, could not unpack it. But now the long-expected journey has been made. He
has reached the place where, all his mental powers unlocked, not as here on
earth, but with every faculty brightened, and every sense glorified, he can
employ them as never before in the service of his divine Master. He had long
been ready to depart. Almost the last sentient act of his life occurred about
two years ago, when, on his recovery from a severe sickness, he called for "that
passage." After reading a multitude of passages, for he was unable to designate
the particular one he desired, the reader opened, by the good providence of God,
to these verses: "For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure
is at hand. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept
the faith; henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which
the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only—"

They were proceeding to read
further, but my father cried "Stop! that is not for me! This is my testimony;
write it down as mine." And I think he could use those

words as fully and as justly as
the man that wrote them. One of the most touching characteristics of his later
years was his affectionate remembrance of his early associates in the Christian
warfare. His heart clung with peculiar tenderness to the memory of Taylor,
Evarts, Cornelius, and Wisner. He loved them all, but especially Taylor. And in
his last years, and in his dying hours, his heart turned not to Boston, the
scene of his brightest triumphs; not to Brooklyn, where for so many years he has
lived so near our beautiful Greenwood, from where shall rise so many on the Last
Day, when the trumpet shall sound which only they who are called shall hear; not
even to Litchfield, where lies buried the wife of his youth, for whom he
cherished all the tender affection which his loving nature could lavish upon an
object; but his last request was, "Lay me by the side of brother Taylor." And
there, in the old graveyard at Hew Haven, shall repose side by side the bodies
of these two Christian soldiers and heroes, until the day when they shall rise
glorified and incorruptible, to dwell forever before the face of God in heaven.

THE
ATTACK OF VICKSBURG.

THE picture given below
illustrates one of the most daring feats of arms ever attempted in the progress
of this war, and not surpassed by anything in the annals of warfare. When
General Morgan L. Smith's division of
General Sherman's command undertook to
storm the enemy's works on the banks of the bayou in the rear of
Vicksburg, the
Sixth Regiment of Missouri Volunteers, under command of Lieutenant-Colonel
Blood, was detailed for the advance. The enemy's works were very strong, there
being is steep bank of thirty feet high to ascend, fortified with breast-works
and rifle-pits, with a heavy force drawn up in line of battle behind them. The
only approach was by a road across a sand-bar in the bayou, exposed to a double
cross-fire from the enemy, and the only way of ascending the bank was by cutting
a road. An order was received for two companies to be sent over in advance for
the purpose of cutting the road —one with picks and shovels, and the other with
muskets to protect the workers front the enemy's sharp-shooters in the
rifle-pits over their heads. Company F, Captain Boutell, and Company K, Captain
Buck, were the first to volunteer, the peril being so great that Colonel Blood
was reluctant to order a detail. Their services were accepted, and the two
companies of heroes went across under a most terrific fire, which left more than
a tenth of their number stretched upon the sand. On getting across they
immediately commenced operations on the bank, and very soon made a large
excavation, almost sufficient for the purpose, when the position of the enemy's
forces and batteries were found to be such that the further prosecution of the
attempt would be certain destruction to all concerned in it, and without
accomplishing any thing. In the mean time Lieutenant-Colonel Blood, with the
balance of the regiment, had crossed over to their support, but with still
greater loss, one-sixth of his force being killed or wounded.

Shortly afterward, the attempt
being found impracticable, the regiment was recalled; and under cover of our
guns, and favored by approaching darkness and a heavy shower of rain, succeeded
in returning without further loss. During the whole time the regiment was
crossing, and while it was under the bank, it was exposed to a heavy crossfire
which threatened it with annihilation; but it never faltered or hesitated, but
marched steadily on, apparently heedless of the storm of bullets which assailed
it. Private M'Gee was shot four times, and thirteen bullets penetrated his
clothing. As he lay upon the bar, unable to proceed, the enemy's balls still
came whistling around him, and to protect himself he scooped a hole with his
hands in the sand and crawled into it. The Sixth Regiment Missouri Volunteers
has certainly won a right to a niche in the temple of fame. Notwithstanding the
ill success of the attack on Vicksburg, such exploits as this will redeem the
history of the affair in the memory of our soldiers.

THE BATTLE AT VICKSBURG—GALLANT CHARGE OF THE SIXTH
MISSOURI REGIMENT.

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